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After 24 days--one of the longest downtimes of a major corporate network ever caused by hackers--Sony's Playstation Network has crept back onto the Internet.

A Sony spokesperson wrote on the company's blog Saturday night that it would be restoring service to users across the United States over several hours, nearly a month after the company wrote on the same blog that it might be "a full day or two before we get the network completely back up and running." Even now, the PlayStation store and purchasing functions on its Qtriocity music services remain offline following an attack last month that exposed as many as 100 million users' personal information, including credit card details in many cases.

Update: Sony has announced that all U.S. states and Canada now have access to the network.

Sony executive Kazuo Hirai appeared in a video to offer yet another apology, the company's third major mea culpa after Hirai issued a formal apology in a press event in Tokyo two weeks ago and Sony president Howard Stringer offered another statement last week.

"I'd like to send my sincere apologies for the inconvenience the service outages caused you and want to thank you for all the patience you've shown as we work through this restoration process," Hirai said in the recorded segment. "We'll do everything we can to regain your trust and confidences."

Hirai went on to talk vaguely about increased security measures aimed at preventing future hacks, including upgraded encryption, more firewall protections, and an early warning system to detect attacks.

Sony has yet to offer more information on how its breach occurred or who might be responsible, although it has controversially hinted that the hacker collective Anonymous may be behind the attack. Bloomberg reported Saturday that a server rented from Amazon may have been involved.

Just how Sony's megabreach will affect its relationship with customers still isn't clear. Reactions in the more than 500 comments on the company's post were mixed. "I just wanted to say 'thank you Sony' and that you guys still rock in my opinion," wrote one commenter. "To all the sad puppies that went and got rid of their PS3 for an Xbox or Wii I don't feel sadness or pity for you because if you were a true Sony consumer a little outage would not influence your decision to get rid of a great gaming console."

But another was less forgiving: "Sony deserves no thanks and will get none from me. They built a weak network, [and] knowingly neglected its security," a commenter wrote. "Big corporations like Sony think they're untouchable.. well.. you got what you deserved, Sony."